■ . P4 Ul/ f « ^ ^^^^H 


i iii 

i 
























HISTORY OE WESTFIELD. 



SERMON 



BY REV. JOHN ALDEN, 

PASTOR OF THE CENTRAL BAPTIST CHURCH, WESTFIELD, MASS. 



DELIVERED JANUARY 28, 1851, 



AT THE RE.MOUELLING OF THEIR HOUSE OF WORSHIP. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CHURCH. 



SPRINGFIELD: 

GEORGE W. WILSON, PRINTER, 

CORNER OF MAIN AND ST.VTE STREETS. 
I S O I . 



SERMON. 



O GIVE THANKS UNTO THE LORD, FOR HE IS GOOD. — Psalms cvii, 1. 

Few, perhaps, in any age or clime, knew more of the 
goodness of God as displayed in his works, or felt more 
sincerely the obligation of rendering thanks unto him for 
his goodness and mercy, than he who was inspired to write 
our text. 

Let us notice a few instances of God's goodness which 
demand our special gratitude. 

I. The goodness of God is displayed in the work of 
Creation and Redemption. Both display more of the per- 
fections of Deity than any other two achievements of 
Jehovah revealed to man. In the one, we hear his voice 
in godlike sublimity, saying in the midst of chaotic confu- 
sion, "Let there be light." At another stroke of his power 
the firmament of heaven appears, gemmed with countless 
suns and systems, each fixed in its orbit to roll on and be 
admired by created intelligences, so many badges of his 
eternal power and wisdom. The material universe with all 
its indescr bable glories, God did not intend to enjoy alone, 
and hence he formed man immortal like himself, to be a 
participator of the scene. 



Awhile, he enjoys the rapturous view and the holy festivi- 
ties of paradise ; but in an evil hour transgression drives 
him out, a subject of disease, sorrow, and death. This 
opened the way for the richest display of divinity the 
universe has ever seen, in the plan of redemption by the 
death of Christ. But did not the morning stars sing to- 
gether, and the sons of Gud shout for joy over the infant 
universe ? What greater work has God ever performed ? 

Be it, that the work of creation displays the grandeur of 
Omnipotence in forming innumerable worlds and hanging 
them upon nothing, so balancing them by two forces, that, 
in all their immense revolutions, they could not deviate in 
the least from their orbits: be it, his wisdom and benevo- 
lence shine in so sha|)ii)g their form, that light and heat by 
their dinrdal revolutions are afforded their inhabitants for 
their comfurt and happiness ; be it, as astronomers tell us, 
tliat this vast world is but a speck in the immensity of the 
Creator's works, and should it be annihilated it might not 
be missed by other worlds; that within our solar system are 
worlds more than a thousand times larger than ours : that a 
sister planet is encircled by a ring that would enclose five 
hundred worlds as large as our own ; that scattered over the 
universe are innumerable suas a million times larger than 
our earth, with their countless groups of planets revolving 
round them ; be it, that the universe is boundless to human 
comprehension ; that the throne of God is in the centre of 
his vast domain ; that ten thousand times ten thousand 
worlds revolve round his throne as their ultimate centre ; 
that our sun, which, has one planet that revolves round it in 
an orbit of about one hundred millions of miles, carrying 
also a whole family of worlds, herself five hundred times 
larger than all of them, is flying in her orbit around that 
throne, attended by constellation after constellation in their 
tremendous sweep through the immensity of space, at ve- 



locities already discovered of 880,000 miles per hour. At 
such a universe, no wonder the angels of light, as they 
looked out of the windows of heaven on the immensity of 
God's creation, sang and ' shouted for joy.' 

But another work of tlie same Almighty hand raises 
greater wonder in heaven, and a loftier, sweeter song on 
earth, from the same happy throng. At the ushering in of 
the infant Redeemer, Heaven pours a light on the dark 
hills and plains of Judea, to the amazement of the artless 
shepherds, and Heaven's eternal choir descends and sings, 
" Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will 
to men." Glory in the highest is now the song. Let a 
note be struck as much higher as the work of redemption 
surpasses that of creation. In the work of creation matter 
was brought from chaos into organized forms ; but in the 
work of redemption, souls are raised from a condition worse 
than nothing to themselves, up to the dignity of the sons of 
God. And over the eternal benefits derived, the redeemed 
will sing the angel's song, " Glory to God in the highest," 
when sun, and moon, and stars, have set in eternal night. 
The one could be accomplished by a word without resist- 
ance ; the other was begun almost coeval with man's trans- 
gression and was consummated on Calvary, so far as Christ's 
deatli was concerned, amid agonies tliat appalled tlie mate- 
rial universe, with earth and hell in opposition from the first 
to the last. 

In the one, God appears in his majesty, forming count- 
less worlds from nothing, and garnishing them in splendor, 
making mountains and vales, streams and oceans, sing his 
greatness ; in the other, he appears in humility for our in- 
struction, taking upon him the form of a servant, conde- 
scending to be smitten for our offences, led as a lamb to the 
slaughter, bruised for our iniquities, and crucifieJ for our 
sins. In the one, he attracts the admiring gaze of a world 



as they behold the circumambient heavens sparkling with 
worlds, the bow of promise with its brilliant hues, the 
burnished clouds, the fruits of earth, and the flowers of the 
field ; in the other, he appears in no form of comeliness, to 
be desired by a depraved world. In the one, God's terres- 
trial benevolence shines in forming the mind and body fear- 
fully and wonderfully, in adapting all the physical laws to 
make them happy, in the innumerable forms of variety, in 
the changing seasons adapted to all the senses ; in the other,, 
eternal beneficence appears, in preparing a way more richly 
to bless the soul here and forever. In the one, he has hid- 
den valuable laws of matter to be discovered by man for his 
good through all coming time ; in the other, he has magnified 
the most valuable of all laws, crushed and trampled upon by 
man, and thereby opened an inexhaustible fountai/i to bless 
souls for ever and ever. In the one, he glorified his power 
amid cherubic legions ; in the other, he laid aside the glories 
of eternity, and consented to be dragged by a merciless 
rabble from tribunal to tribunal, arraigned as a criminal and 
condemned as a malefactor, and executed as a miscreant. 
In the one, he gives life to innumerable beings ; in the other, 
he voluntarily laid down his own life. 

" Heaven wept that man might smile, Heaven bled that man 
Might live forever." 

The one, was accomplished in six days ; the other, although 
almost as many thousand years have rolled away, is not yet 
completed. 

Two advents of the immaculate Redeemer to this guilty 
world were needful. In the first he suffered what finite 
beings can never comprehend. Yet the moment the Saviour 
rises from this world of sin from Mount Olivet, decked in a 
cloud of glory, angelic escorts attend him upward, heaven's 
everlasting doors are lifted up, and the King of glory takes 
his throne, while the heavenly hallelujahs in swelling peals 



are iieard around liini. John had a vision of the heavenly 
oratorio, and gives us the following report : — " I beheld, and 
I heard the voice of many angels round about the tiirone, 
and the beasts, and the elders, and the number of them 
was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
thousands saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb 
that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, 
and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing." In 
the last advent, having finished the work of intercession, he 
will come as the Judge of this vast world, and wind up the 
drama of time. Angels will attend him ; heaven earth and 
hell will be moved, his elect will be gathered, his bride rob- 
ed for immortality, and death and hell chained to his char- 
iot wheels, and he in triumph ascend with his saints, as the 
universal conqueror, while bursting praises are heard in all 
worlds but one. 

His first advent was to make an atonement for sin, his 
second will be to sweep from the earth every vestage of ini- 
quity. In the first, the ungodly triumphed, in the second 
they will be fearfully destroyed. At the first, saints were 
persecuted, scattered and slain ; in the second, they will tri- 
umph and take their crowns and eternal honors. The first 
was the seed-time of the Gospel, the other will be the har- 
vest of the world. Christ died for our sins ; where is there 
a parallel to this ? He died to avert the consequences of 
sin ; for without the shedding of blood there is no remis- 
sion ! In the plan of redemption, love and mercy were 
brought to light as they never had been before. No won- 
der the commemorative part of the Sabbath should pass 
from the seventh to the first day with no fuller explanation. 
The elect angels had seen power and justice displayed by 
the Almighty, but no mercy followed a part of their once 
happy brotherhood when they were cast down to hell, 
" Reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the 



8 

judgment of the great day." No wonder they desire to 
look into this ocean of mercy shoreless and fathomless, be- 
cause finite beings can never comprehend Infinity. 

'■ With joy, with griefj that healing hand I see. 
The skies it formed, and yet it bled fnr nif "' 

II. From the earliest ages God's goodness has been 
manifested in befriending his saints. It cliecred Abel and 
Noah, Lot and Moses, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in their 
conflicts. When his people needed divine help, lie often 
stepped forth from the hiding place of his power, and mi- 
raculously aided them. In the pillar of a cloud by day, and 
in the pillar of fire by night, in the desolating plagues on 
Pharaoh and his host, and in their final overthrow in the 
march of the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt to their 
entrance into Canaan, amidst hunger and thirst, savage beasts 
and savage men, God's goodness was strikingly manifest in 
protecting them, even to the destruction of their foes. At 
the hand of Moses he sends water from the flinty rock, 
and at the hand of Joshua he stops the sun in the heavens. 
One angel he sends to deliver Daniel from the lion's den, and 
another angel walks in the flaming furnace as a comforter, 
while the God of angels is delivering the three Hebrew 
worthies. The gift of tongues at the day of pentecost, and 
the opening of prisons closed upon his followers, are among 
some of the many miraculous displays of infinite goodness 
to man. 

God has often given skill and foresight to persons of his 
own selection, to accomplish his designs. Thus Moses was 
prepared to be Israel's leader. Bezaleel and Aholiab were 
taught to build the tabernacle, and Hiram was endowed 
with extraordinary skill to build the temple. Thus too Ne- 
hemiah was armed with the whole panoply of heaven, to 
lead back the poor captive Jews, and rebuild their ruined 



city, and in after days Paul was raised up as a leading mis- 
sionary with a boldness and zeal that never failed him, and 
Peter was taught by a vision to spread the gospel through 
the Gentile world. 

Leaving Scriptural history, we have abundant other proofs 
of God's goodness to his church. No sooner had the apos- 
tles b'egan their work of mercy than all Paganism was in 
arms against the religion of Jesus. The Emperor Caligula, 
holding supremacy over all Christians as he supposed, order- 
ed every house of worship to be closed on the penalty of 
the death of the whole Jewish nation. The church then 
so feeble, had not God interposed, had all been slain. But 
he suddenly called this inhuman monarch from earth, and 
the churches had rest throughout Judea and Galilee and 
were greatly multiplied. Nero like a fiend of darkness 
next arises to destroy the saints, and in the sixty-sixth year 
of the Christian era, slew the apostle Paul, but God cut 
short his days. Though God came out in judgment against 
the Jews, overthrew their city, and destroyed more than 
a million of them, yet in a miraculous manner, almost 
every Christian was spared. Though the emperors Trajan, 
Julian, Nero, Dioclesian and Caligula caused the blood of 
saints to flow like water, still the church spread rapidly. It 
was God who stopped the mouths of lions, burst the bars 
of prisons, and palsied the arm of her persecutors. Why 
did not Constantino, though the professed friend of the 
church, destroy it by uniting it with State ? Why did not 
Mahomet with all his hostile military retinue, break in pieces 
the little kingdom? Why did not the blood thirsty Inquisi- 
tion with its prophetic iron teeth destroy the followers of 
the Lamb ? In thirty years she did destroy one hundred 
and fifty thousand, but a remnant was spared. In the midst 
of Papal darkness and cruelty, God raised up a Martin Lu- 
ther. With a purpose inflexible, and a soul filled with the 
love of God, unmoved at Papal anathemas, he wielded the 



10 

sword of truth, and the first blow that he struck ;nade the 
beast roar with a wound destined to be fatal. About this 
period, in the valley of Piedmont at the foot of the Alps, 
there lived a large number of Waldenses, who alone on 
earth maintained pure religion, having never swerved from 
the faith and practice of the apostles. Catholic persecution 
at last burst upon them. Four hundred of them were 
smoked from the caves on the side of the mountain where 
they had concealed themselves, and were butchered in the 
snow. Tw^o hundred and fifty of these Waldenses left for 
the shores of England in the eleventh century, and because 
they would not submit to the Pope, they were branded with 
red hot irons in their foreheads, and scourged through the 
streets of Oxford. All were forbidden to receive them into 
their houses, and through the inclemency of the winter 
most of them perished. 

But through the goodness of God, Christianity spread 
rapidly in the British empire, and with it Papal superstition 
and oppression raged. I cannot stop to detail death upon 
death that rolled the garments of saints in blood, and 
carried terror and dismay through the nation. Suffice it to 
say, through God's blessing, the wrath of man was made to 
praise him ; for the flames that burnt her martyrs, lighted 
up a holy light that will never go out. It was that persecu- 
tion that sent the Church to the wilds of America. Here 
she has spread with such a rapidity, that, in contemplating 
her march we are as those who dream ; and she will spread, 
till, like the tree in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, her height 
has reached the heavens and her beauty the ends of the 
earth. What reason have we to thank God and take cour- 
age, for the Church has come forth from racks and dungeons, 
persecution and death, with her garments made white in the 
blood of the Lamb ; and amid all her trials she has sung, 
" O, give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good," and she 
will sing that soul-satisfying song down through the mil- 



11 

leniuni ; she will sing it at the gate of death and the gate 
of heaven, and then the echo will die away in her eternal 

song. 

III. The goodness of God has been richly displayed in 
the history of this toivn.* Less than two hundred years 
ago, this town was a howling wilderness. No voice of the 
white man broke the silence of the morning. No hum of 
business, no beautiful works of the artist, no ties of civil- 
ized friendsiiip, no true praise to God was here. And yet 
there was a praise more pure than the contammated praises 
of men. It was not the war-whoop of the savage, nor his 
horrid orgies around the council fire ; it was not the howl 
of the wolf, the growl of the bear, or the scream of the 
catamount. It was nature in her solemn wildness. It 
was the waving of the primeval forest. It was the whis- 
perings of the breeze, falling into this vale, from the cloud- 
capt mountains around it. It was the ceaseless murmurings 
of our streams in nature's great anthem. But God has 
purposes to accomplish here, and thither he sends the 
white man in the midst of dangers to reclaim the wilderness. 

Westfield (or Warronoco, as the Indians called it), 
embracing once what is now Southvvick and Russell, was 
the strong-hold of the savage. The great abundance of 
salmon, bass, shad, and trout, with which our rivers 
abounded, together with bears, deer, moose, and other 
game that filled the forest, rendered this perhaps the most 
desirable spot in New England for the Indians. A little 
south of this village, in the part now called Squawfield, 
there is abundance of evidence from the arrows and other 
articles the Indians use, that they cultivated, to some de- 
gree, that part of this valley. A number of those relics 

* For the historical facts I am indebted to Rev. Dr. Davis' His 
torical Sketches, and to the Town and Church Records. 



12 

are preserved, among other curiosities, in our Academy. 
To leave a home Uke this, was not without a struggle. 

The King of England gave all the land embraced in this 
town and Springfield, to the inhabitants of Springfield, and 
they gave successive grants to individuals to settle in this 
place. 

In 1658, a tract of land was officially granted to Thomas 
Cooper, on condition he improved it within one year, and 
continued so to do for the space of five years. This land 
lay near the county bridge. In 1660 a similar grant was 
made to Deacon S. Chapman, of land adjoining Cooper's. 
In 1661 a grant was made to Capt. Pincheon, Robert 
Ashley, and George Colton, of land lying between the 
rivers, embracing probably what is now our village. In 
1669 this town was incorporated, and called Westfield, 
from the fact it was then the most westerly plantation in 
New England. 

Similar grants were made to Isaac Phelps, Capt. Cook, 
Mr. Cornish, Thomas Dewey, J. Noble, David Ashley, John 
Holyoke, John Ponder, and John Ingersol. These men 
lived near the confluence of Great and Little Rivers. They 
took up their residence here in 1666. 

The first regular meeting on the Sabbath was held in 1667. 
Tradition has it, that a little previous to all this, three young 
men set up a trading-house with the Indians on the eastern 
border of this town, spent one summer here, and were 
never heard of more. Though each man had a separate 
tract of land, such were those perilous times, they had to 
cultivate it in common. Near the junction of Great and 
Little Rivers they erected a fort in which they lodged by 
night, and to which they fled by day in case of alarm. A 
tract of land about two miles in extent was strongly en- 
closed. In 1690 the town assembled, raised a sum of 
money by which they sent some of their bravest sons to 
destroy the savages who were constantly harrassing them. 



13 

Houses at this time were occupied as forts in different parts 
of the town. A balustrade was erected upon the roof, from 
which they could fire upon the enemy. 

We, who are situated in our peaceful homes, ought never 
to forget those dark and tryini^ days of our fathers, and that 
this beautiful vale was bought with their blood. In those 
mournful days, never to be forgotten by a grateful posterity, 
our fathers were only a few families in the all surrounding 
wilderness, the haunt of the bear and the panther, and men 
more savage than they. A few habitations of civilized men 
were found in Northampton, Hadley, Springfield, and in 
Windsor, Ct. All the West and the immediate vicinity was 
a forest, filled, for aught they could know, with thousands 
of hostile savages. They could not rely on these places 
for help, almost as helpless as themselves. Surely they 
could not then say with England's gifted bard, 

" There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 
There is a rapture on the lonely shore." 

No ; at every step in the forest there was enough to 
make the very flesh crawl ; for the catamount might be 
waiting to bound upon them from above, and the savage 
might be hidden behind the tree, to give the more sure and 
deadly blow. Even these beautiful streams that then 
environed them, murmured daily and nightly, danger and 
death every where. With their fire arms by their side, . 
they felled the forest and tilled the earth, and slept in their 
log houses, while in turn some were standing as sentinels. 

No great harm befel the first settlers until Philip's war in 
1675. A more able, artful, and furious warrior than Philip 
rarely haunted the forest. He was seldom seen by the 
white man, except in the distant council-fire, the bloody 
massacre, and in the conflagration of cottages and forts. 
Probably there was not a settlement of the English in all 
New England unknown to him and his warriors, and their 
purpose was their utter extermination. 



14 

Xear the spot where our paper-mill now stands, our 
fathers erected a grist-mill and saw-mill. And as the in- 
habitants of Springfield frequented these mills, many of 
them were slain on their way. In this town, the houses of 
Cornish and Sackett, Fowler and Lee, were laid in ashes 
by the Indians. Loomis and Bentley, and a Miss Sackett, 
were among captives known to have been taken. A num- 
ber were killed, but their names are not left us. Grey Lock, 
by whose consummate subtlety, two of the above captives 
were taken, is the only Indian tiiat patrolled this region, 
whose name was known. Xow at Pochossuck, then at the 
Shepard lane crossing, around the fort, nay, everywhere hos- 
tilities awaited our fathers. • Their lives were in danger 
constantly. Can we wonder that this feeble band, scantily 
fed and clad, with no mortal arm to protect them, were on 
the eve of despair, and about to give up their homes and 
flee for safety : 

Such was the fact, and a less noble and courageous race 
would have done it. But He who was the sole stay of our 
afflicted sires in those trying days, intervened, and held back 
the blood-thirsty savage, sent reinforcements and gave them 
final success. Some other of the first permanent settlers 
were Sackett, Ashley, Fowler, "Weller and Xeal, from whom 
some of our valuable citizens have descended. In the 
French and Indian wars, a draft was made on Westfield for 
soldiers, and some of her sons perished in those battles. 
Among the number, Major Xoah Ashley stands pre-eminent. 
He fell in 1775 between Fort Edward and Lake George. 
No man in our early history stood so prominent as a civilian, 
as the Hon. "\Vm. Shepard. Under Gen. Abercrombie at 
the age of 22, he received the commission of Captain, and 
continued in the French war six years ; was in the battles 
fought at Fort William Henry, Ticonderoga, Crown Point, 
Isle aux Xoix, St. Johns, and Montreal. In 1775 he held 
the office of Lieut. Colonel, and stood high in the confi- 



15 

dence of Gen. Washington, in the revolutionary struggle. 
In 1760 he was appointed General, and held that rank to 
the close of the war. When the war was over, like the 
Roman Cincinnatus, and our immortal Washington, he re- 
tired here to his farm. He was chosen one of our State 
Senators and Representative to Congress, and held the office 
of Deacon 28 years. We love to chronicle the success of 
good men, and embalm their names in grateful remembrance. 
This town from the first, was favored with men who felt 
deeply the importance of education. For many years they 
gathered all their children into one general school, and em- 
ployed a man, as a general thing who could teach the Clas- 
sics, and rewarded him more liberally than is common at this 
day. It is believed no child was left too ignorant to read 

or write. 

The Westfield Academy was chartered in 1796, and 
opened for pupils in 1800. It has usually stood among the 
highest of Academies in the State. Its funds are about 
^5000. Many thousands have been educated there, many 
of whom are among the brightest ornaments of the world. 
Not far from fifty have been liberally educated from this 
town, many of whom have stood high in the church and 

state. 

The Normal School was located here in 1844, and the 
present edifice was erected in 1846, at an expense of about 
$6000. About one hundred and thirty towns in eleven 
counties have been represented, and we are confident it will 
not suffer in comparison with any institution of the kmd in 
existence. God has owned and blessed it temporally and 
spiritually, and may his blessings never be withdrawn. 

The religious history of this town is fraught with deep 
interest. The first religious exercises of the primitive set- 
tlers were conducted by a Mr. Holyoke. A Mr. Fiske 
preached for a time as a candidate for settlement. For 
more than half a century the inhabitants were assembled for 



16 

worship, at the beat of a drum. The first meeting-house 
is supposed to have stood in what is now the bed of Little 
river. A second house was erected in 1720, which after- 
wards was burnt. The present Congregational Church was 
erected in 1805. In 1679 the present Congregational 
Church was organized. The first pastor, Rev. E. Taylor, 
was settled the same year. He died in 1729. For four or 
five years previous to his death, he was unable to preach. 
His successor was the Rev. N. Bull, who was ordained in 
1726, and died in 1740. Rev. J. Ballentine, the next pas- 
tor was ordained in 174 Ij and died in 1776. Rev. N. At- 
water, the next pastor was ordained in 1781, and died in 

1802. Rev. T. Knapp, tlie next pastor was ordained in 

1803, and died in 1847. The present pastor. Rev. Dr. 
Davis, was ordained in 1836. During the ministry of these 
clergymen, there were added to the church as follows : 
through the labors of Mr. Taylor, 189 ; through Mr. Bull, 
226; through Mr. Ballantine, 412; through Mr. Atwater, 
123 ; through Mr. Knapp, 657 ; through Dr. Davis, 429. 
The present number of the church, is 429. 

The first Baptist Church collected in this place, was or- 
ganized in 1784. Its pastor was Rev. Adam Hamilton. 
Owing to misconduct, he was deposed from the ministry, 
and the little church he gathered were soon scattered. Their 
house of worship stood near the County Bridge. A new 
Church was organized in 1806, with eighteen members. 
The house they occupied was about half a mile east of our 
present place of worship. Rev. A. Hawks was their first 
pastor. In 1812, a revival brought sixty into the church. 
After this they were destitute of a pastor for some time. In 
1818, Rev. C. Green was ordained and remained with it as 
pastor one year. Rev. D. Wright was the immediate suc- 
cessor of Mr. Green, and remained their pastor about seven 
years, and was followed by Rev. A. Smith. Owing to a 
variety of causes, a secession of twenty members took place 



17 

in 1833, who formed themselves into what is now our church, 
under Mr. Smith as their pastor. In 1836 this new church 
settled Rev. D. Wright as their pastor, and he remained 
with them four years. The meeting-house in which we are 
now assembled, was erected in 1833. Rev. C. Van Loon 
was settled over this church in 1839, and dismissed in 
eighteen months. Rev. F. Bestor was settled in 1840, and 
dismissed in 1 8 4 1 . Rev. C. Van Loon was re-settled here in 

1842, and after less than a year's labor, left on account of ill 
health, and soon died in the State of New York. Rev. A. 
Colburn, his successor was settled in 1842, and dismissed in 

1843. Rev. N. M. Perkins was settled in 1844, and 
dismissed in 1848. Rev. J. Alden was settled in 1849. 
During Rev. Mr. Wrights ministry, the church, previous to 
the secession, reached nearly to 200 members. The old 
church from which the secession was made, has long since 
ceased to act in a church capacity, and has become almost 
extinct, as might have been expected from the inactive poli- 
cy pursued. During Rev. Mr. Smith's ministry, seventeen 
were added. During Rev. C. Van Loon's ministry, 81. 
During Mr. Colburn's stay 48 were added. During Mr. 
Perkins' Labors, 34. During the present pastor's labors, 51. 
The present number is about 165. 

The Baptist Church at the West Farms, was organized in 
1819, and their meeting-house was built in 1820. Rev. D. 
Wright was their first pastor who has been succeeded by 
Messrs. Chikls, Bestor, Day, Smith, and Underwood. Dur- 
ing the settlement of some of these pastors, there have been 
revivals and a goodly number added. Present number, 66. 

The Meihodist denomination commenced their worship 
in this town about 1794. The first preacher was Dr. Rob- 
berts, who was followed by the Rev. J. Taylor. Westfield 
was at this time included in the G;auville Circuit. A 
church was first organized at the West Paiish, in 1806, and 
a meeting-house built in 1829. The Methodist church in 
3 



V 



18 

this village was organized in 1812, with seventeen member?. 
Their meeting-house on Main street, was built in 1834. 
The house of worship they now occupy, was built in 1842. 

From 1795 to 1812, this village was a circuit station, and 
hence we cannot find out the number added to this particu- 
lar station from their records. I can therefore only give the 
different preachers who have been settled here. The fol- 
lowing I believe is a perfect list in the order of their settle- 
ment, both for the Centre and West Parish. No notice is 
taken of their reappointments to return, which happened in 
large number of instances. Commencing with 1812, the 
following are the list : Rev. R. Harris, Thorp. P. Muzzcy, C. 
Culver, B. Goodsit, S. Dayton, B. Hibbard, D. Miller, C. 
Carpenter, T. Clark, R. Sceny, A. M. Cain, S. Eighmy, 
Hatfield, G. Pierce, N. Rice, P. C. Oakley, J. Allen, E. Os- 
borne, C. F. Pelton, L. Mead, J. Nickson, E. Otis, J. Has- 
kell, D. Lislee, S. Esten, T. W. Tucker, E. Scott, P. 
Townsend, W. Smith, Bcnj. McLowth, J. Mudge, T. W. 
Gile, M. Trafton, H. S. Degon, J. Ricketts, N. Merrill, M. 
Raymond, J. B. Husted, G. F. Cox, S. Best, and J. H. 
Twombly, their present pastor. The present number of the 
Central Church is 237, and that of the West Parish about 50. 

In 1843 a number seceded from the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and formed a Wesleyan Methodist Church. Their 
preachers were Rev. E. Scott, E. Brewer, J. L. Gross, C. O. 
Town, and J. Wright. They occupied the old Methodist 
meeting-house where (hey met for worship. The number of 
their Church is now 19. 

Thus it appears that we have seven church organizations 
with an aggregate of almost a thousand professors. Of the 
five Churches which now observe the ordinances, we have 
nominally 947 members. 

It is not a little remarkable, that the Congregational 
Church have buried all their past pastors in this town, and 
neither of the other Churches have buried one in their 



19 

midst. For 105 years the Congregational Church was the 
only church in ll)is town. Miny were her early trials, great 
her responsibility, and inaniftjld her success. My impres- 
sions are, that during her entire history, as much liberality 
of views, and kindness of action has prevailed, as is gener- 
ally found. She has kept steadily on in her duties, has not 
been fickle in regard to her pastors ; and she has seen other 
churches rise and fall in her presence apparently unenvied, 
until in the aggregate, they have surpassed her in numbers, 
and we cannot doubt but that she prays for their spiritual 
welfare. Doubtless the prosperity of either of these village 
churches, aids the others, and the wane of either darkens 
the prospects of the rest. It requires all the seraphic com- 
bined power of ardent piety in them all, to keep religion in 
the ascendant, in these degenerate times. While all rival- 
ship and boasting is excluded, we can say with gratitude to 
God, that since the Methodist and Baptist Churches erected 
their present houses of worship in this village, they have 
been abundantly blessed ; nor can we see that they will suf- 
fer in comparison with the Congregational Church, taking her 
whole history into view. 

And now, situated as we are, upon a soil rich and fertile, 
and adapted to all fruits grown in New England — surround- 
ed as we are by natural scenery seldom equalled, and scarce- 
ly surpassed on earth, with a quiet, flourishing, and a beau- 
tiful village in the midst of it, a village where aristocracy 
finds it diflicull to marshal herself-— a place sought out as an 
asylum of science by the Slate, where they have chartered 
two Institutions of learning, and mo e that all, a place own- 
ed and blessed of God remarkably with precious revivals 
from lime immemorial, if any people have occasion to thank 
God for his mercies, we are that people. We as a church 
have abundant reason to thank God for past mercies. 
Within the last twelve years this church has moie than trip- 
pled its members; and tried to bear her pa. t with Christians 



20 

around her, in blessing the place and the world. Shall we 
not, my brethren, henceforth maintain a closer walk with 
God, and press on with unwavering steps to the bloodless 
conquest of the world ? We have great reason for gratitude 
that there has been such great harmony and readiness on the 
part of our Church and Society, to meet the expenses of our 
repairs so promptly. 

It becomes us now, after all the anxiety and toil pertain- 
ing to the improvements made in this sanctuary, to enjoy 
them by consecrating them all to God. The offering is 
none too good for Him who gave his all for us. God forbid 
we should idolize any thing that is here. Let us rather hum- 
bly and thankfully give it to Him who eternally owned it. 

To God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we now conse- 
crate all we have done to improve this sanctuary and im- 
plore the blessing of the whole Trinity to rest upon us and 
our offering. May the Almighty Father ever throw around 
us his protecting arm and light up our path-way to eternity. 

May the Son, our blessed Redeemer, here see the travail of 
his soul, and be ever enthroned in the hearts of his followers 
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and sinners drawn by 
his deathless love, be brought by the spirit of all grace, to try 
the efficacy of his atoning blood. 

May the Holy Spirit ever be here to enlighten, to sanctify 
and comfort and save. By his power may souls be awaken- 
ed — stubborn wills subdued, the tempted succored — the 
weak supported — the self righteous rebuked — and prodigals 
in all their wretchedness and woe brought back to their 
Father's house. 

Finally, we make the consecration to the Church of God. 
Here may her faith, and her love, and her songs, and her 
prayers abound. Here may the Spirit constantly descend to 
refresh and comfort her, and enable her to act prayerfully and 
nobly her part, until she is called from her militant state to 
rest forever in the Paradise of God. 



w'^'? 



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IIISTOllY OF WESTFIELD. 



r 



S E R M K 



BY REV. JOHN ALDEN, 

If PASlOIl OF THE CENTRAL BAPTIST CHUliClI, WESTFIELD, MA«S. ''^j 



I 



DELIVERED JANUARY 28, 1851, 



AT THE REMODELLING OF THEIR HOUSE OF WORSHIP. 



PUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CHURCH. 



1^ 



SPRINGFIELD: 

G E R G E W . WILSON, P R I N T E R, 

CORNER or MAIN AND, STATE STUEETS. 

1851. 




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CONGRESS 



LIBRARY OF 



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